KASHMIRI MUTTON ROGAN JOSH

Much like its scenic beauty, the cuisine of Kashmir is simply outstanding. Wazas (the master chefs of Kashmir) are known to be extremely passionate cooks. They skilfully and patiently prepare the rich, soulful recipes of Kashmiri cuisine, which is a wonderful blend of tastes and cultures that have for long co-existed in the valley. Rogan Josh is one of the most sought-after Kashmiri recipes in the world. Let’s discover how you can prepare this rich, aromatic, spicy-hot mutton curry at home.

Ingredients –

• Mutton (with bone) – ½ kg
• Cumin seeds – 1 teaspoon
• Kashmiri Red Chilly Powder – 1 ½ tbsp
• Curd – 1 ½ tbsp
• Fennel Seed Powder (saunf powder) – ½ tbsp
• Ginger Powder – ½ tbsp
• Green Cardamom – 5
• Cinnamon Sticks – 5 (small)
• Mace (javitri) – 2
• Saffron Strands – 6
• Black Cardamom – 3
• Asafoetida (heeng) – ¼ teaspoon
• Salt – 1 tbsp
• Ghee – 2 tbsp

Method –

• In a blender, put mace, green cardamom, cinnamon sticks and cumin seeds. Blend to make a powder.
• Put a pan on heat and add ghee to it. When the ghee becomes hot, add black cardamom. After a few moments add meat. You have to cook the meat on medium flame till it turns slightly brown in colour. Once the meat turns slightly brown, simmer the heat immediately.
• While the meat is being cooked, take a bowl and add red chilly powder, heeng, fennel seed powder and ginger powder in it. Add 200 ml water and mix well.
• Now, pour this watery paste over the meat. Add salt and saffron strands as well. After that, add enough water to cover the meat, but not enough to completely submerge it. Mix well, cover the pan and let it cook for another 30 minutes on low flame.
• Now add the blended whole masala powder (which we made in step one) and curd to the meat and let it cook for 30 more minutes on low flame. Perfectly cooked mutton should be absolutely tender and buttery.
• Enjoy Rogan Josh with Kashmiri Naan or Butter Naan. It tastes perfect with long grain ‘basmati’ rice as well. You can even combine it with vegetable or mutton Biryani.

Note – Use Kashmiri Red Chilly Powder only for this recipe. This chilly powder gives amazing red colour to the curry, but is not really spicy. Use of regular red chilly powder for Rogan Josh is not recommended since it’s too spicy and won’t give you the desired deep-red colour. Originally, the Wazas use an ingredient called ‘ratanjot’ in order to bring the colour. But since this spice is not easily available, chefs in all parts of the world use Kashmiri red chilly powder instead.